ARTS

The Michigan Daily
Burmese group
ends its mission

Sunday, March 20, 1983

Page 7


By Rob Weisberg
ARTIN SWOPE and Roger Miller
are local boys, nurtured in the
early 1970s Ann Arbor "Destroy All
Monsters" mini-scene. But they ran
away from home, discouraged, winding
up in Boston - site of a thriving post-
punk scene. And they put together a
band, named it Mission of Burma, put
multi-instrumentalist Miller on guitar,
Clint Conley on bass, Peter Prescott on
drums. Swope? He fiddled around with
tape loops and electronics, adding gut-
level applications of high tech.
They played their first gig on April 1,
1979. By the end of the year they were
being hailed as the "Next Bit Thing."
Miller wasn't happy, though. He recalls
that he felt the band was too stylized.
He was bent on releasing the "primal
energy" and "animalism" of rock and
roll, in distinctive fashion.
They had almost achieved the goal

when they released their debut EP
Signals, Calls, and Marches on Ace of
Hearts records in the Spring of 1981.
And when they released their only
album, Vs., last fall, there was no
longer room for doubt. Mission of Bur-
ma was one of the few musically talen-
ted, unique, and exciting rock and roll
bands in the country.
Tonight at the City Club in Detroit,
Mission of Burma will make their last
area appearance. The band is breaking
up because too much loud music has
left Roger Miller with an incurable
ringing in his ears that can only get
worse the more he plays.
It's sad to see Burma go, especially
considering they were one of the few
bands threatening to break through the
sea of commercial mediocrity. But at
least they'll never have a chance to go
stale the way so many bands do. We'll
be able to romanticize about what
might have been instead of cajoling
them for hanging on.

- - - - - - - - - - - - . m
- - - - - - - --------------
-------------.-
* . . . I . - I
- - .
a- - ----------. ----------. -.
~. - - - - - ~. - -- .- I~ - ~ - a- - - - .~T. .~. - . -

CRUISE SHIP JOBS! Great income potential, all oc-
cupations. For more information call: 602-837-3401
Ext. 992. 09H0322
SOMEONE TO PREPARE or assist with preparing
inner from March 21 to March 31. Could lead to
nger employment. Central Campus area. 663-4729.
72H0322
TYPING - Fast, quality work, campus pickup and
delivery. 665-0337 15J0331
TELEPHONE ANSWERING SERVICE: 24 hour
service. $24/month. 9-6 service: $15/month. 761-
2022. 02J0325
TYPIST, 75° per page. IBM 2 type styles,
rofessional, accurate, affordable, Sally 663-7253.
24J0416
TYPING-EXPERIENCED
LEGAL SECRETARY-
REASONABLE RATES-
Gretchin 662-9102. 63J0413
FREDERICK J. HOOD: Hope you're in a good mood
'cause you've just won two free tickets to the State
Theatre. Come on down to the daily to pick them up!
dJ0320
MTS users! Typesetting for $2.00/MS page. Send us
your pre-typed files via phone and receive
phototypeset galleys within 48 hours. Experienced
Skshop. Call Delmas at 662-2799. 21JO326
TOMORROW'S JOBS know what is and will be
available through this indispensible booklet of
current government studies covering all industrie&
and states including Alaska and Hawaii. $8.75 LYN-
TEL RESEARCH dept. TA2225 P.O. Box 99405
Cleveland, OH 44199. Satis. Guaranteed. 40J0405
MASSAGE - A good massage gently stretches
muscle fibre, relaxes muscle tissue, promotes good
circulation and enhances movement. Massage also
may provide relief from muscular aches and pains.
And it is a pleasant way to reduce stress and anxiety
because massage is very relaxing. Swedish, oriental
myomassology techniques employed by Vince
uschas, professionally trained masseur. 665-4524.
cJtc
Typing all kinds plus transcriptions. IBM Selectric,
low rates. Cindy 662-9948. cJtc

Term papers, resumes, dissertations. Quality
typing, reasonable rates, fast service. Maggie 973-
7345 persistently. cJte
SUMMER STORAGE: Clean, private units, from
$18/mo. 11 miles from UM stadium. StowAway Self
Storage, I-94 and Ann Arbor-Saline Rd. 769-0119
80J0416
WORD PROCESSING
Ideal for resume/multiple cover letters, theses,
reasonable rates.
Call 663-7158
cJtc
ACCURACY, INC.
Editing/proofreading/typing
Papers, articles, reports
971-4139
cJtc
TYPING - Experienced. Dissertation, thesis,
manuscript, business. Fast and reasonable. 662-9948.
cJ0417
WRITE ON...
Editorial and typing service
Freelance writing, research
996-0566
cJtc
IM1 I.SOELLNEOU ]
VINTAGE CLOTHING - Now open - men's and
women's, large selection. 120 West Huron at Ashley.
Open everyday but Wednesday. 78M0327
STEVEN L. GAYNER-Jump for Joy and do a
DOUBLE GAINER-you've just won two free tickets
to the State Theater so come down to the Michigan
Daily and pick them up. dM0320
HAVE YOU done it? Have you ordered your 1983
Michigan Ensian? Stop by our office at 420 Maynard
and order yours today! dP0320
BIKE EUROPE IN '83
For Details: BIKE EUROPE INC.'
234-A Nickels Arcade; 668-0529
cPtc

Miller
... ends his reign
Endings are also nice because they
create an excuse for looking back. In
those Ann Arbor days Miller played
with his brothers Ben and Larry (who
then played drums), now members of
the up-and-coming local trio Non-
Fiction. Recalls Miller, "Some of the
things we did back then were just as
wild as anything I did with Burma."
Their first original band, with Harold
Kurtchin on trumpet, was called
Sprotin Layer - never was a Miller,
brother to play in a band with an ob-
vious name.
Unfortunately, points out Roger
Miller, "that happened in 1969 and 1970
and it was a little too late to catch the
psychedelic thing."
Dismayed by the turgid state of mid-
'70s rock 'n' roll, Miller says that he
"kind of half lost interest." He attended
music school for a while, getting his
jollies from free jazz and working on
composition and his piano technique.
He was back in Ann Arbor, though, for
the onset of "punk," offered a spot in
Destroy All Monsters along with his
brothers, who acceeded, but he recalls
that the Monsters' basic post-Stooges
metallic punk (this writer's inter-
pretation, not his) "wasn't really my
style." He therefore declined the offer
and instead found himself in a series of
artsy bands that he admits "didn't
gell."
Of course much of the problem had to
do with the Ann Arbor audience, which
prefers its rock'n'roll generic. So he
and Swope fled, and the rest is history.
Another great thing about endings is
that they make new beginnings
possible. Thus we are greeted with Bir-
dsongs of the Mesezoic, and avant-
garde group that Miller says employs
elements of rock, classical, free jazz,
and funk; structured music and im-
provisation. The new group is heavy on
keyboards, with Detroit's Rick Scott on
organ, Eric Lindgren on synthesizer
and rhythm, Miller on piano (and some
guitar) and good old Swope twisting
knobs again.
The all-instrumental band has an EP
due out in April, and they've already
had some success gigging at artsy spots
in Boston and offers to play in avant-
hungry New York. They're a low-
volume ensemble by necessity -
because of the demands of the "genre"
(if that word is applicable) as well as
Miller's ears. Still, Miller says there is
still lots of excitement in what they do
- only instead of going exclusively for
the jugular, as rock'n'roll does, he
suggests that Birdsongs mixes the
Dionysian and the Apollonian. The
animal element may be missing, but
Miller says they're still seeking to con-
jure up the primal.
Primal art? It sounds quite in-
triguing. But for those still in search of
the Burmese animal, tonight is the last
chance.

Reader'
By Ellen Lindquist
IT'S NOT much like an evening at the
theater. The Reader's Theatre Guild
opened William Faulkner's As I lay
Dying Friday night in the R.C.
Auditorium. But if I hadn't been infor-
med that I was watching a finished
production, I would have thought I had
got caught in the middle of a rehearsal.
There's no room for character
development in a production where cast
members do not wear costumes and
keep their eyes rivetted on large
notebook-sized scripts. With no in-
dications for scene changes, the
audience was left struggling to make
transitions between scenes.
Before the play started, the audience
was kindly informed that the Reader's
Theatre Guild, an alternative, indepen-
dent student group affiliated with MSA,
is a "theater of the mind." The "actors
read from scripts without sets, props or
other theatrical conventions," we were
told. Already my insides curdled.
What the Theatre Guild presented,
having paid copyright fees to Random
House Publishing Company, was an
edited version of Faulkner's novel
about a family's struggle to transport
the corpse of their mother, Addie,
across southern America by wagon.
David P. Wahr, brother of Philip A.
Wahr, president of the Theatre Guild,
chose which passages of the novel to
present.
The result was a series of dialogue
scenes interspersed with lengthy
narrations. Changes from scene to
scene were not indicated in any way.
The audience was left to deduce from
the context of the reading where the
scene was taking place. Occasionally
the lighting changed, or the actors
rearranged themselves on stage, but
overall the audience was thrust from

s.Theatr
major scene to major scene without the
courtesy of conventional theatrical
prop or set transitions.
Picture this: a group of people, men
in untucked flannel shirts and jeans,
women in skirts unrealistically short
for the time period portrayed, standing
around on stage reading from their
large black scripts. Instead of being,
immersd in their characters, they self-
consciously read. This is not theater.
It would have been more interesting
if the production had actually been
about a play in the making, but the
Reader's Theatre Guild was serious in
its attempt to re-enact the Faulkner
novel.
The only dramatic presentation (and
the best of the performance), was by
Brian McGraw who while holding his
script without reading it, well por-
trayed a usurious country pharmacist.
His witty characterization was com-
plete with facial expressions, ap-
propriate hand gestures and genuine
feeling. The other actors seemed to
think that getting up on stage and
reading a script can engage the atten-
tion of an audience. It is difficult for an
audience to feel anything for charac-
ters who do not seem alive, who seem to
be lost in the pages of a book being read
by some miscellany of people on stage.
The Reader's Theatre Guild is a good.
idea in essence, although perhaps' a
deplorably retroactive one, resembling
a radio presentation more than a
theatrical one. But a radio show,
through the use of sound effects, better
conveys the images within a story that
the Reader's Theatre Guild did. A radio
show might effect the sound of horse
hooves, while the Reader's Theatre
Guild did nothing more than mention
the presence of a horse on stage, in no
way fueling the imagination of the spec-
tators.
All the Reader's Theatre Guild has

e dies
done istake impromptu type of reading
up on stage and charged admission for it.
Even some of their reading is rough. They
attempt to imitate Southern accents, but
some of them come out sounding like=
glorified valley girl twanges.
The Reader's Theatre Guild is not for
the theater because it is completely
stripped of theatrical conventions such
as costumes, makeup, set designs and
even line memorization. The theater is
a creation of illusions. Completely
stripped of illusions, it is nothing. The
Reader's Theatre Guild has limited it-
self to this nothingness on stage. Actors
do not even vividly gesticulate, many
do not raise their variegated southern
drawls above a whisper, much less put
expression into their speech.
Such a rigid limitation to a rough
reading of the novel can only bring back
memories of reading plays out loud in
the classroom. Then it was fun if you
had a part, but the kids left out of the
reading were bored. So it seemed was
the audience of As I Lay Dying. The
audience sat dying to leave.
A theater production can work only if
it captures the trust and attention of the
audience. But the Reader's Theatre
Guild comes on the stage as if armed
for battle, carrying unsightly, bulky
scripts, imposing themselves on stage
with as much subtly as a staged protest.
Well, the Reader's Theatre Guild is
funded by MSA - student government.
Perhaps there is a connection there.
Just because we have an actor for
President. does not mean all the
political types in the world should try to
jump on stage without undertaking the
discipline, acting, directing and
producing the theater requires. They
should not expect to come up with
anything less than an offense to artistic
sensibilities. Politicians are so
idealistic.


PAPER MATEo

LETS YOU
WRITE
AT ANY
ANGLE ...
EVEN
UPSIDE
DOWN

S04OFF

"
Hew3

PAPER MATE PROFILE PEN
with this ad
Now through March 30, 1983

Available
At:

Distinctive Styling in the Paper Mate Tradition
F OLLETT'S
MICHIGAN BOOK STORE
3 22 SO U TH ST A TE STRAE ET A NN AR BO R

TYPING, IBM WORD PROCESSING,
PROFESSIONAL, ALL TYPES.
Call Noelle any time, 971-2364.

L.


cJtc

MOVIE POSTER GALLERY
665-3151
62J0320
TYPING, 75'per page. Call evenings 663-0980.27J0322

BRAND NEW APARTMENT for spring and/or
summer sublet - 3 bedrooms, great location, price
negotiable. Call anytime (best time 5:30-6:30). 761-
6365. dU0325

PROFESSIONAL RESUMES
ON WORD PROCESSOR
996-4572

SUMMER SUBLET: House on Catherine & State-
2 bedroom, living room, dining room, basement with
cJtc laundry, parking. $250 plus utilities, Call 996-9540.
47U0320

IT
and win

EuU.

TELEPHONE ANSWERING SERVICE: 24 hour
service. $24/month. 9-6 service: $15/month. 761-2022.
02J10325
TOMMOROW'S JOBS know what is and will be
available through this indispensable booklet of
current Government studies covering all industries
and states inc. Alaska and Hawaii. $8.75 LYNTEL
RESEARCH dept. TA2225 P.O. Box 99405 Cleve. Ohio
040199 Satis. Guaranteed. 40J0405
TYPING BY SANDI - 426-5217
Fast, Accurate, Reasonable. Papers, briefs, letters,
dissertations (electronically), 11 years experience.
cJtc
TELEPHONE ANSWERING SERVICE: 24 hour
service. $24/month. 9-6 service: $15/month. 761-2022.
02J0325
TYPIST, 75t per page. IBM 2 type styles,
professional, accurate, affordable, Sally 663-7253
51J0326
SINGING TELEGRAMS: BY THE U-M MEA'S
GLEE CLUB; QUARTETS $20 plus; CALL 764-1448.
30216
TYPING - all kinds. Very professional. Reasonable
mates and quick service. Call Lauri at 662-1678.

THOMAS B. SOMMERS-You have won two free
tickets to the State Theater. Come to the Michigan
Daily and pick them up. dM0320
YOUR OWN HOUSE! Small two bedroom. Ten
minutes from campus. May-Sept. 761-5238. 87U0322

I ROOMMATES]
FEMALE ROOMMATE wanted to share room in 3
bdrm. apt. East Univ. 994-0885. 18Y0320
TWO FEMALE ROOMMATES wanted in 5-bedroom
house. Beautifully furnished, microwave, washer &
dryer, 2 bathrooms. Half block from law school. Up-
per classmen or graduate students preferred. Con-
tact Lisa/Catherine: 995-1232. 99Y0311
2 ROOMMATES to share bedroom in 2 bedroom apt.
$141/month/person. Mickey 663-2958. 93Y0316
KOSHER 4-Bedroom Apt. $165/mo includes utilities.
M-M lease. Good location. 761-6126. 16Y0327
NEED A ROOMMATE? Call the perfect match
roommate service. Call: 761-2022. 01Y0325

POETRY READING
WITH GARR Y ZEBR UNAND
TISH O'DOOD EZEKIEL
Reading from Their Works
Monday, March 21, 8 PM
GUILD HOUSE 802 MONROE
(662-5189)

a trip to and win the
Daytona
use of a new
Beach. Dodge Shelby
Enter the "Bump 'n Jump" video y
game championship on campus atCh rge
the place and times listed below. If Ca rger$200
you get the highest score in the
tournament, Dodge will fly you toaf
Daytona Beach for Spring Break
where you' be a special participantscholarship
in the Collegiate Driving Championships. If you are going to Daytona Beach for
Your 256 donation will go to a worthy charity Ifryou areakgoi n t ciat e o
designated by the Student Organization that is Spring Break you can participate
administrating the tournament. inathe 1 98 Coeipating
Sponsor Zeta Beta Tau ° the Sports Car Club of America
for and GreatEscape as a Solo 11 Rally. Dodge will
provide the Shelby Charger for
Amercian Cancer Society you to drive in the rally and each weekly winner will be
Great Escp 21 5 . nvrst awarded the use of the car for one year and a $2,000
PloceGreat scape - 1216 S. Unversity scholarship. Valid student ID and drivers license
Date March 21-25 required.
Daytona Beach Florida
Time M, F 8-12 pm Plaza Hotel
T, W, Th 7-11pm----March 14-April 2, 9 am-7 pm
Sscar clubw merica

NEED A ROOMMATE? Call the
roommate service. Call: 761-2022.

perfect match
01Y0325

- I


a

- -- - -- --- m